On a plot lined with budding vines, Thomas Solans takes advantage of a cool spring morning to plant a variety of olive trees imported from Portugal and accustomed to oceanic climates.

"Here, before, there was vines. We tore it off to make this square and see if it works, "smiles the 38-year-old winemaker as he files earthen stakes to align his shrubs.

If he has chosen to expand his palette, it is in particular to be less dependent on the Bordeaux wine market, in full slump. "Crises, we will see others again," he told AFP. Planting olive trees "is trying to anticipate", even if "people will take us for crazy".

Polyculture was the norm in Gironde until the 1980s, before the rise of wine and land speculation ousted certain productions. In 2021, 85% of farmers in the department were winegrowers, a much higher proportion than at the national level.

From now on, the first AOC vineyard in France with 110,000 hectares is suffering: overproduction estimated at one million hectoliters, collapse of prices for the least prestigious appellations... In January, more than one winegrower in three declared themselves in difficulty with the Chamber of Agriculture.

"Hazards"

In response, the State and the inter-professional association announced a plan to distill surpluses and a "sanitary" grubbing-up campaign of some 10,000 hectares, to the tune of 57 million euros... without disarming the protest of some producers, gathered within the Viti33 collective, for whom this is not enough.

Bernard Solans in the vineyards of "Clos d'Arnaudet", in Courpiac (Gironde), March 29, 2023 © MEHDI FEDOUACH / AFP

The Nouvelle-Aquitaine region plans to invest 10 million euros in regional and European funds to help "at least 300 winegrowers" to diversify, i.e. an average of 25,000 to 35,000 euros per farm... provided that at least three hectares are grubbed up.

In addition to the olive tree, the Chamber of Agriculture evokes other tracks: forest, fodder meadows, kiwi, hemp, tobacco, hops, hazelnuts, table grapes, ducks, Pauillac lambs, cattle, wine tourism, renewable energies ...

"The important thing is not to put all your eggs in one basket, because of the climatic and especially economic hazards," says Philippe Abadie, director of the business division at the Chamber of Agriculture, which a hundred winegrowers have already solicited. In the Region, we aim for about fifty "pioneers" by 2024.

"Once the economic model has been proven a little, other winegrowers will be able to say: +Oh, but you make money with your olive oil+," says Charlotte Nommé, director of agriculture at the Regional Council. "It's going to be an oil stain."

However, the amount of investment required (50,000 to 80,000 euros per hectare for kiwifruit, for example), as well as the age and financial situation of winegrowers, remain obstacles to this reorientation.

"If I were 30..."

"I'm 54 years old, I'm not going to start another production," confirms Romain Loustal, a winemaker who also produces cereals, after attending one of the "Diversification Meetings" at the end of March, organized by the Chamber of Agriculture in Sauveterre-de-Guyenne.

Thomas Solans (l), his father and their employee plant olive trees at the edge of their vineyards, on March 29, 2023 in Courpiac (Gironde) © MEHDI FEDOUACH / AFP

"If I were 30 years old, I would gladly reconvert, for example in the walnut tree," says this winegrower who has two daughters and few prospects of taking over his farm.

In line with his father, Thomas Solans has an already diversified farm: 41 hectares of vines (80% of his income) but also meadows, about forty cattle, some truffle oaks ... and now the olive trees.

"Monoculture is not necessarily healthy," he said. "We're redoing what the ancients did." But for him, the olive tree is above all an "experiment", not an "industrialization": it targets 150 trees and two hectares maximum.

With an average investment of 13,000 to 15,000 euros/ha and mature olive trees in four to five years, it is necessary to bet on a high-end production, at 15-20 euros per liter of oil, to be profitable, he calculates.

As for whether the olive tree, the Mediterranean plant par excellence, can thrive further north, the winemaker does not expect, for the moment, yields "assured every year", recalling the case of the year 2021 very wet.

"It's a bit early to say: we're putting olive trees because of climate change. But by 2050, yes, maybe."

© 2023 AFP